Many patents have issued which are directed to the general topic of facilitating the gripping of writing instruments for the purposes of forming good habits by persons just learning to write and preventing muscular fatigue and cramping, even in those persons who already know how to write. Some examples of such writing aids are described below.
U.S. Pat. No. 843,767 to Plach is directed to an improved pen holder with three opposed surfaces adapted to fit the hand of the user. In addition to three curved grooves adapted to hold the fingers of the user in a correct writing position, the device comprises a curved portion adapted to that part of the hand between the thumb and the forefinger. This device is a penholder and not a writing aid designed to fit over a writing instrument.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,841 to D. Balasty is directed to a triangular shaped pen or pencil and a triangular shaped device for use and holding of a pen or pencil, such as by sliding the device over the length of the writing instrument and thereby facilitating the triangular shape of the fingers during writing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,427 to Anderson is directed to a writing instrument such as a pen having a shaft for hand-held use. The shaft is formed with three elongated concave indentations in a generally equilateral triangular configuration with rounded vertices and at least one concave side as seen in cross section in the region normally grasped which form sockets to receive the thumb, index finger, and middle fingers respectively.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,149,811 to Coffman is directed to a style handle for writing and engraving instruments. The base portion of the style, gripped when the style is used, consists of three essentially flat surfaces arranged in a triadic spiral at a selected pitch conforming with an individual's finger grip when the style is held in a normal manner. The edges of the spiral lie in the grooved portions between the thumb and fingers with the thumb and fingers resting upon the flats of the spiral in a relaxed, natural manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,167,347 to Hoyle is directed to a removable finger grip adaptable to a wide variety and size of writing instruments. The finger grip is an elongate resilient body having a triangular cross-sectional shape and a cylindrical bore coaxial with the longitudinal axis of the writing instrument. The cylindrical bore has a plurality of ribs or ridges for accommodating a wide variety of sizes of writing instruments. The triangular shape provides three planar surfaces for gripping the device and also provides a thin web of materials in the planar gripping surfaces between them and the cylindrical bore at the center of the gripping surfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,547 to Rusk is directed to a method for teaching persons how to hold writing instruments properly as well as a writing aid for facilitating the method of teaching. The device disclosed is very similar to the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,020 to Rusk.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,020 to Rusk discloses a writing aid device. As can be seen in FIGS. 6 and 7, the forefinger is inserted into a depression on the writing aid 10, which is apparently designed to be gripped by the hand 22 of the user and provides for three gripping surfaces 42/44/46. The surface 42 receives the user's first finger 24 for positioning the user's finger 24 with respect to the pencil 12. The second gripping surface 44 receives the user's index finger 26. The third gripping surface 48 receives the user's finger 28.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,604 to Rusk is a continuation of U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,020 to Rusk. In the continuation, it is disclosed that body 36 of writing aid 10 is preferably made of a soft, pliable plastic material.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,817,456 to Parsons is directed to a writing instrument comprising a sleeve 10 of "metal, wood, cork, or any composition" provided with a bore whose diameter is such that a pencil, pen, or other writing instrument can be frictionally engaged thereby. The outer periphery of the sleeve at one end is provided with a depression 11 which forms a seat for the end of the thumb, while depressions 12 and 13 provide seats for the index and second fingers, respectively. The other end of the sleeve forms a shoulder adapted to bear against the edge of the palm of the writer at the base of the thumb and first finger.
Australian Patent Specification 39,911 to Nagy is directed to a handwriting improver gadget comprising an attachment for a more comfortable and agreeable grasping of a writing instrument. Three grooves are formed on the gadget in such a way that normal, average human fingers lie snugly in them in their most natural position This reference states that flexible materials seem to be more favorable than other materials because they may be attached to instruments of differing diameters and can be moved to a position on the instrument most comfortable to the individual user. The single figure of the drawing for this reference discloses a somewhat oblong device with its larger end nearest the point of the pencil inserted through the device. A rather extensive (in terms of surface area of the device) depression is provided for the thumb, and a deep but apparently smaller depression is provided for the third finger. The depression for the forefinger is hidden from view in the figure.
Taiwanese Patent Application 6925529 to Chun Yu Chang is directed to a ball-like body which is hollow and is attachable to a pen. The device has grooves on the gripping surface for transmitting the stress exerted by the fingers to the tip of the pen so as to induce a correct gripping method for children and to provide a means of gripping for those who cannot hold a standard pen. The drawing discloses a device with gripping surfaces that appear to be planar for the thumb and first fingers. The gripping surface for the middle finger is hidden from view in the figures. A sectional view through the device seems to indicate some sort of spring arrangement inside the device.
In addition to the patents described briefly above, the following U.S. patents may have some relevance to the present invention;
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. Number Name of Inventor Date Issued ______________________________________ 217,499 C. R. Wells July 15, 1879 249,893 J. S. Bulkeley Nov. 22, 1881 447,873 C. Hanimann March 10, 1891 794,329 W. A. Whitehouse July 11, 1905 945,026 C. A. Faust Jan. 4, 1910 1,184,155 W. W. Williams May 23, 1916 1,291,972 M. J. McGuigan Jan. 21, 199 1,793,945 J. Mauthe Feb. 24, 1931 1,807,415 D. J. La France May 26, 1931 1,879,456 L. B. Parsons Sept. 27, 1932 2,173,451 C. Lorber Sept. 19, 1939 2,236,194 C. Lorber March 25, 1941 2,870,740 T. B. H. Vogt Jan. 27, 1959 3,501,849 M. E. Olsen March 24, 1970 3,947,977 Bishop April 6, 1976 4,035,089 Schwartz et al. July 12, 1977 4,056,325 Maruyama Nov. 1, 1977 4,601,598 Schwartz et al. July 22, 1986 4,602,885 Bischoff et al. July 29, 1986 4,917,517 Ertz April 17, 1990 ______________________________________
None of the patents described or mentioned above discloses a writing aid as is provided by the present invention. Writing aids with triangular gripping arrangements do not provide gripping surfaces that keep the first finger, second finger, and third finger in place and can therefore be gripped improperly. Furthermore, triangular devices are not comfortable for the user because one edge of the triangular device digs into the hand when it is not gripped properly. Other devices provide gripping surfaces for the fingers that are either too small or too hard, and those devices are difficult to grip properly.